Towards A More Subtle Understanding of the Yoga Tradition
The question “what is yoga” represents a significant point of departure for our understanding of this diverse and highly complex religious tradition. For the purposes of this paper, I will limit this discussion to some of the ways in which scholars have approached this question, in order to highlight several of the issues that scholars raise in the attempt to define yoga. It is also important to discuss these issues in relation to contemporary ideas about the significance of yoga in the Western world. Scholars agree that while contemporary yoga has often been narrowly framed in terms of a neoliberal or secular model of practice that privileges a materialistic way of thinking about yoga (especially in reference to yoga as a technique or strategy that facilitates self-care and individual wellbeing) (, the history of yoga presents a multicultural, super-diverse, deeply philosophical and open-ended paradigm of beliefs, thought and practice. However, it is within this fluid and complex context of the history of yoga that it can be difficult to define the subject, especially as a particular practice, idea or tradition. I argue that in order to think about yoga in a more nuanced and open way it seems to be necessary to focus on how individuals experience yoga as an interpretative and ultimately transformative practice through the diversity of ways in which they facilitate their greater connection to their in-most Being.
According to the literature, to think about the variety of meanings attached to the term yoga it is important to understand how the term has been used throughout history. The root word for yoga, ‘yuj’, in Sanskrit means “to yoke” (Feuerstein, 3). However, the precise meaning of yoga is often ambiguous and multifaceted, and depends on a close reading of how it is being used within a particular context. For example, as Feuerstein states, “the term yoga is a common word in the Sanskrit language—the language in which most of the yoga scriptures are written. It also happens to be one of the most versatile Sanskrit terms, having a whole range of meanings that extend from simple “union” to “team,” “constellation,” and “conjunction” (2). Moreover, as Godrej states, “scholars point out that the word has meant many different things in many contexts, and that perhaps no word has been more misunderstood” (2). I think that the fact that term yoga has such a wide range of meaning is perhaps another way of framing how the practice yoga so closely emulates the many realities of human life (interestingly, this is reflected in the many postural positions of yoga that represent the physical forms and movement of flora and fauna found in the world). Therefore, I suggest that the term yoga necessarily needs to be as broad as possible if it is meant to capture the possibilities of human life in relation to ultimate reality. However, how do scholars negotiate the difference between the terminology that “defines” yoga (if it is possible to define yoga), and a distinct tradition and practice of yoga? One of the ways in which scholars engage with the yoga tradition is through a study of the philosophy of yoga as it emerges in the history of the Indian subcontinent, especially through various oral and textual traditions.
According to Feuerstein, for example, the way in which yoga has been used to designate a particular religious tradition can be traced back to the key philosophical texts, ideas and beliefs emerging from the four distinct historical periods of yogic thought and practice: archaic yoga, preclassical yoga, classical yoga and postclassical yoga (1). To elaborate on this point it is also important to note that the historical practice of yoga has its origins in the ancient shamanic traditions of the Indus Valley region. Moreover, the history of the Indus Valley region is another aspect of the study of yoga that situates the historical development of the yoga tradition within the context of a shifting social, political and cultural climate, shaped by various changes to the natural world, all of which have had a profound impact on the development of yoga (Feuerstein 7-8).
In any case, Feuerstein’s broad trajectory of the yoga tradition within these historical periods is a useful categorization of the most significant periods of development in yogic thought, from the early Brahmanical tradition of the Vedas, dating back as early as the fourth millennium B.C.E, to the foundational works of classical yoga attributed to the author Patanjali, such as the Yoga-Sūtra (c.100-200 C.E.). From this perspective, because of the deep historical, religious and mythological dimensions of yoga that developed over the millennia, it seems to be necessary to locate the emergence of yoga within a particular history of the philosophy of yoga. For example, as Sysak states, “the philosophy of classical Yoga is one of the six darshanas or orthodox schools of Indian philosophy which originated in the Vedas, the sacred Hindu scriptures. Yoga, though, is distinct from the other darshanas in that it is not a purely formal or abstract philosophy, but a practical philosophy of life that aims for psycho-physical self-mastery in order to achieve greater insight into oneself and nature of the world” (41). In this context, yoga is a philosophy that goes beyond the life of the mind and the world of ideas, moving towards a wholistic and present form of conscious thought, behaviour and action (if indeed yoga can be limited to these aspects of human experience). This is an important point of contention because of the way in which yoga is framed as a philosophy that challenges the idea of philosophy as merely an expression of the mind in the search for empirical knowledge, of the Western Cartesian cogito, and the binary separation of the body from the mind.
Throughout the distinct periods of yogic thought there is a tremendous amount of complexity and diversity in the variety of ways of approaching yoga, especially when one factors in the relevance of different religious traditions in India that emerged within these time periods, such as Buddhism and Jainism, which had their own interpretation and variations on yogic themes within their particular religious traditions (Newcombe 987). However, one could argue that the broader philosophical aspects of yoga could be realized in the spiritual, moral and philosophical developments in any religious tradition beyond those that developed in the particular context of the Indus Valley Region. Indeed, there seems to be many syncretic aspects of yoga that blend in with the ideas and practices of other religious traditions, especially in ways that complement and harmonize with deeper spiritual truths. As I will discuss later, there is an significant emphasis on questioning whether there is an essential connection to yoga as a distinctly Hindu tradition (Jain 429). In any case, I think that this observation speaks to the fluid nature of the yoga tradition, which aims at the greater union of the Self, as well as a realization of the intrinsic relationship between the Brahman and the Atman, the two fundamental ways of articulating the divine life force both within human experience and without, enveloping the grounds of Being itself.
What is the essence of the yoga tradition? Is it possible to speak about yoga in a way that attributes an essence to it? While scholars have been attentive to the way in which the yoga tradition has been essentialized in various ways (Jain 429), whether through orientalist discourses of the interpretation of yoga as a categorical marker for the Hindu religion in the context of British colonialism in India, or through various ideological attempts to demonize yoga as a kind of vehicle for moral relativism, there remains a question of whether one can think about yoga as a definitive, essentially defined tradition. While it is not my intention to deliberate on whether one can define yoga as such, it is important to note that in a general way scholars attribute a historical origin to yoga as it has been “codified” in the thought of Patanjali. According to scholars, Patanjali was the first to codify yoga as a particular practice (Feuerstein 11, Newcombe 987). Hence, it seems that for a variety of scholars and yoga practitioners, Patanjali’s Yoga-Sūtra is perhaps the most significant textual resource for thinking about an “authentic” and centralized form of yoga. Therefore, in classical yoga, Patanjali lays the scriptural basis for what is most often thought of as a cohesive representation of the yoga tradition. In the Yoga-Sūtra, which is “often described as astanga yoga (eight-limbed yoga)”, is a “collection of aphorisms” attributed to Patanjali. According to this text, the eight-limbed path represents a certain process that facilitates the moral and spiritual progress of an individual along the path of yoga. It seems that the astanga yoga, or eight-limbed path, described by Patanjali is of primary importance for both scholars and yoga practitioners, especially to the degree in which it shows a clear connection between the bodily aspects of yoga, and the moral, spiritual and philosophical dimensions of yogic thought and practice. However, how do the ancient texts, ideas and beliefs of the yoga tradition translate into the more contemporary forms of yoga we observe in our world today? Is there a disconnect between the two? In what follows I endeavour to draw several connections between the ancient and modern periods of yogic thought, noting that while there is a rich layer of continuity between what Feuerstein refers to as the formative historical periods in the development of the philosophy of yoga, there is also a deep disconnect in the tendency of modern day yoga to formulate itself based on values associated with Western materialism. In what follows I will offer a brief reflection on these cultural transformations.
In the Western world the idea and practice of yoga is broadly associated with routine fitness exercises, mental health, well-being and mindfulness activities. However, the way in which yoga is understood and imagined in these ways underscores a particular interpretation of yoga as it has been introduced to western countries by yogis travelling to these countries and promoting different types of yoga to western audiences throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Godrej 3-4, Newcombe 992). During this process of cross-cultural exchange, the way in which scholars of religion have interpreted and analyzed yoga as an esoteric system of beliefs and practices had a major impact on how modern communities imagine yoga, reinforcing the materialist view that one can separate and prioritize the theory and practice of yoga in a particular way, divorcing it from its spiritual wholistic reality (Whicher 3).
While the cultural transformation of yoga into its more popularized forms in the West has created a fascinating paradigm in contemporary yogic practice (that continues to shape the political, economic and social landscape in the western world), it seems to present a limited framework for yogic practice and thought, especially as though one can separate theory from practice in yoga. In these contexts, yoga, at least in its popularized forms (which as scholars state, emerged in particularly later postclassical period), has often been reduced (largely in material terms) to bodily techniques for fitness and exercise, stress-reduction, self-care, alternative medicinal and spiritual practices. While this has created the conditions for a greater awareness of the concept of yoga among vastly different social and cultural milieus, it has often revolved around the interests of a growing neoliberal economy rather than encouraging a more profound and conscious awareness of the cultural and philosophical complexities of yoga (Godrej 9). However, as Godrej argues, while popular forms of yoga have often been coopted into a neoliberal framework of the self, there are also many ways in which yoga offers a form of resistance, and indeed creates the conditions for greater awareness of the Self.
In conclusion, the history of yoga, from its early beginnings in the Indus Valley region, as it has been articulated by various thinkers and philosophers such as Patanjali, presents a different paradigm of yoga than what is often perceived as yoga in the west. In order to think about yoga as a particular philosophical worldview that forms the basis for how scholars think about authentic yoga scholars, have traced the philosophy of yoga to its development in the Indus Valley Region. The ideas, practices and beliefs that have emerged from the particular cultural contexts of the different periods of yogic thought, ultimately moves beyond a materialistic conception of the way in which people think and practice yoga in the contemporary world, offering pathways for resistance against oppressive frameworks of economic and political governance rooted in particular ideological narratives of self-hood. Overall, the issues addressed in this paper have opened up my interests in a wide range of possibilities for further study. I am fascinated by the historical transition from the early shamanic practices that pre-date yoga, and how these are reflected in the philosophical aspects of the yoga tradition. I am also interested in reading and exploring the Yoga-Sutra, and other philosophical texts, diving into the historical and philosophical roots of yoga.
Bibliography
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